Friday, July 19, 2024 - BURPEE, the origin story!

Beyond the clues dissected in today's episode, there were a few surprising answers lurking in the grid: 41A, People credited with discovering mechanoluminescence, using quartz crystals to generate lig...

28 Nov 20219min

A Goldilocks of a Friday crossword - not too easy, not too hard, but just right - thanks to the talents of crossword constructor Kate Hawkins, aided and abetted, no doubt, by editor Will Shortz. Any g...

27 Nov 202111min

True or false: this was a tricky crossword. True! And false! In fact the grid was littered with true and false answers, an ingenious gimmick courtesy of Chase Dittrich. To get the full 411, just hit t...

26 Nov 202113min

A crunchier than usual Wednesday puzzle, both Jean & Mike had trouble in the north central and southeast parts of the grid. Jean was particularly stymied by her nemesis, the rebus, while Mike was almo...

25 Nov 202113min

Eric Bornstein simultaneously cashes in his chips and hits one out of the ballpark, with a financially-themed crossword with a baseball sub-theme (if two clues constitute a sub-theme, and we say yes)....

24 Nov 202114min

A fine introduction to the problem solving week, Stella Zawistowski turns in a puzzle with some gentle cluing, and a cute theme, a great puzzle for those new to the New York Times crossword scene -- a...

23 Nov 20217min

A gem of a Sunday crossword, one of the finest we've seen in many a moon. A great theme, to be sure, but the rest of the grid was absolutely grade A as well. To hear the rest of the story, you know wh...

22 Nov 202117min

An epic Saturday crossword, but with Mary Lou Guizzo and Jeff Chen at the controls how could it be anything but? The clues were like the answer to 1A, FRESH, and the result definitely deserves a 5 squ...

21 Nov 202110min